Spiritual Leadership
During high school, I got to know some of the elders at our church really well. We were building a new church in the middle of a subdivision that was also under construction at the time -- moving from a downtown church surrounded by businesses, and becoming part of a brand-new neighbourhood.
We all pitched in to help keep the costs down, which meant that young teenagers like me got the experience of doing some construction work alongside many of the adults in the church. Because I was 16, I was allowed on the roof (the coveted workplace for those of us with little enough common sense to realize how precarious our lives were up there!), and I got to know several of the elders, particularly Tom, really well. You can't call an elder by a formal title when (for example) a brick is falling, you just yell "LOOKOUT TOM".
Near the end of high school, I remember Tom driving me home from somewhere, and the two of us talking about the book of James in my parents' driveway, and Tom praying for me before I got out of the car.
A few months after Wendy & I were married, I worked in a factory where Tom was in the head office. We were all required to have proper workboots, and the company offered to pay half for any employees who couldn't afford them. We were newly-weds with very little money to our names, after we paid for the regular repairs to our dilapidated '68 VW Bug and the rent on our cockroach-infested apartment in downtown Hamilton. We really couldn't even afford paying just half, but we didn't have any other choice.
The day that I bought the workboots, Tom called me into his office, handed me a wad of cash, and said, "I know things are tight for you and Wendy. Don't protest; God wants me to do this." The cash was equivalent to what I had just paid for the workboots.
The last time I was at Tom's church was in 1989, just after Jo was born. He came by the hospital to congratulate us, meet our infant daughter, and -- in similar fashion to many of the youth who had visited us -- place a stuffed teddy bear on the shelf next to Jo's crib. That poor shelf was struggling under quite a load of stuffed animals -- it was great to be part of a church body that cared about us.
Then, just a few months later, our journey took us to Western Canada until August of 2004.
Today, I got a phone call from Tom. He offered to buy me coffee, so we met at local Tim Horton's (Canadian cultural tradition). He'd just heard this morning about my recent resignation, and he wanted to get together and see how I was doing. No agenda other than that. We talked for about an hour, and then he prayed for me before we parted.
It reminded me a great deal of my meeting with Bob Roxburgh back in late 1992 -- an elder of the faith taking time out of a busy schedule to encourage another member of the Body, with no agenda other than encouragement and prayer. Tom & Bob have both modelled true spiritual leadership.
I hope someday that I can do the same for somebody.
We all pitched in to help keep the costs down, which meant that young teenagers like me got the experience of doing some construction work alongside many of the adults in the church. Because I was 16, I was allowed on the roof (the coveted workplace for those of us with little enough common sense to realize how precarious our lives were up there!), and I got to know several of the elders, particularly Tom, really well. You can't call an elder by a formal title when (for example) a brick is falling, you just yell "LOOKOUT TOM".
Near the end of high school, I remember Tom driving me home from somewhere, and the two of us talking about the book of James in my parents' driveway, and Tom praying for me before I got out of the car.
A few months after Wendy & I were married, I worked in a factory where Tom was in the head office. We were all required to have proper workboots, and the company offered to pay half for any employees who couldn't afford them. We were newly-weds with very little money to our names, after we paid for the regular repairs to our dilapidated '68 VW Bug and the rent on our cockroach-infested apartment in downtown Hamilton. We really couldn't even afford paying just half, but we didn't have any other choice.
The day that I bought the workboots, Tom called me into his office, handed me a wad of cash, and said, "I know things are tight for you and Wendy. Don't protest; God wants me to do this." The cash was equivalent to what I had just paid for the workboots.
The last time I was at Tom's church was in 1989, just after Jo was born. He came by the hospital to congratulate us, meet our infant daughter, and -- in similar fashion to many of the youth who had visited us -- place a stuffed teddy bear on the shelf next to Jo's crib. That poor shelf was struggling under quite a load of stuffed animals -- it was great to be part of a church body that cared about us.
Then, just a few months later, our journey took us to Western Canada until August of 2004.
Today, I got a phone call from Tom. He offered to buy me coffee, so we met at local Tim Horton's (Canadian cultural tradition). He'd just heard this morning about my recent resignation, and he wanted to get together and see how I was doing. No agenda other than that. We talked for about an hour, and then he prayed for me before we parted.
It reminded me a great deal of my meeting with Bob Roxburgh back in late 1992 -- an elder of the faith taking time out of a busy schedule to encourage another member of the Body, with no agenda other than encouragement and prayer. Tom & Bob have both modelled true spiritual leadership.
I hope someday that I can do the same for somebody.
posted by Robbymac at
6:49 PM
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